I suffered temporary madness just a few hours ago. Or maybe, I was just a little drunk.
It was Friday and merely a few days before Christmas. With having nothing to do, I decided to give Kinokuniya a visit. With me running out of books to read, I felt it was the perfect time for me to go on book shopping.
Initially, I had a specific title in mind and probably one or two other titles I would decide once I actually saw them. For that one specific book, I was looking for Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last of Man. I thought, I have never read Fukuyama despite being familiar with his ideas. At the book store, I went straight to the counter, asked for Fukuyama’s and got it. One thing though, Kinokuniya placed The End of History at the history section…
The girl at the counter was cute though.
Then, the random walk amid the racks began.
First was The Undercover Economist. It was right beside Freakonomics. And yes, I admit, I haven’t read Freakonomics. I know it’s pop-econ but I feel I know enough economics that I wouldn’t feel too astounded to the facts in the wildly popular book. What’s more, I actually had read some of its content and while entertaining, I could say I’m familiar with it. Besides, I prefer not to read what most others read. As with The Da Vinci’s Code, I only read it after a friend incessantly told me I should read it day in day out. I read Da Vinci’s just to shut her up. Digression aside, I picked that book.
The third book was Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian. I don’t know why I picked it up but I suspect it was because Nik Nazmi mentioned it earlier in his blog. For all I know, Nik Nazmi probably run a subliminal message that would sound like “read Sen. read Sen.” And The Argumentative Indian became the third book I picked up.
I thought I would stop at three books but soon, I spotted Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I remember Dawkins from an article on New York Times. Furthermore, the title was on Kunikoniya’s top ten non-fiction list. I picked that one up too. So much for “don’t really like reading what most people like to read“, eh?
The fifth book was The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the more prominent economists in our times. I have great respect for him, despite the fact that some of his ideas aren’t too friendly to libertarianism.
The sixth was The Origin of Wealth by Eric D. Beinhocker. The reason I picked up this book is pure curiousity. At the back of its jacket, it writes “There is a revolution underway in economics and you need to know about it.” Call me a sucker but I really wanted to know about the revolution. And judging from the selection of the books, you could probably guess which section I was lingering at.
Bill Clinton’s My Life was next. People — well, my democrats-friendly friends actually — told me how great the book is. They might be biased but I do think Bill Clinton is a great President. So, one more.
The last one was History the Malay Kingdom of Patani by Ibrahim Syukri. Why I picked this one up? I thought, hey, maybe I could read this and then contribute to Wikipedia!
After all the madness, I started to sober up. The cause of the awakening was the increasingly heavy burden I was carrying. Yes, the burden was the books. And all those books probably would have burned a hole through my wallet if I hadn’t sober up.
I inspected price tags and I said to myself, “whoa!”. The whole thing cost more than RM 500. In fact, it was more like RM 800!
I didn’t plan to spend RM 800 as recklessly as I had picked up the book and so, with heavy hearts, I had to filter them out.
The first victim was The Undercover Economist. Second was The Argumentative Indian.
Then, it was History of Patani. This book in particular is priced in the most irrational way. It’s a relatively thin book but priced nearly RM 50. Clinton’s My Life is about five times as thick and cost just RM 65. Maybe, I could blame it on economies of scale!
The fourth unfortunate victim of the unwanted culling was The Affluent Society.
Ironically, the scourge cost the book that I came in the first place. Yes, I threw away The End of History.
So, in the end, I was left with My Life, The Origin of Wealth and The God Delusion.
While I’m currently happy with two titles, I’m not so sure with The Origin of Wealth though. When I got home, I immediately opened by New Years’ present and took a sneak peak of what to come. Naughty me.
The Origin of Wealth unfortunately looks like an economics thesis instead of something one could read for leisure. The appendices itself could be made into a book by itself. That’s how thick it is. Maybe I should just return and trade it for Fukuyama’s instead.
And great. I forgot that I wanted to get Sophie’s World.
Regardless, these three titles ought to keep my busy for weeks.